Dell is a bit more conservative than I would like when it comes to its XPS line, hardly changing the design in the last few years. Nonetheless, it's a bit difficult to find anything glaringly wrong with the design of the XPS 13 or 15 – save for the oddly placed web camera.

For late 2017, Dell is playing it safe again with the refreshed XPS 13 9360 by upgrading the processor to the new Intel 8th generation Core i7-8550U. While clocked slightly below the latest Surface Book 2 13 the XPS 13 for Fall 2017 still benefits from those extra cores.

The RAM is also faster now with 2,133MHz instead of the slower 1,800 MHz from last year and users can opt for a solid 1TB of PCIe NVMe SSD for storage. The fingerprint reader for Windows Hello is still extra, but well worth the $25.

Dell XPS 13 specifications

Category

Dell XPS 13 9360

Processor

Intel Core i3 or i5, 7th GenIntel Core i7 8th Gen (NEW)

Internal Storage

Up to 1TB SSD

RAM

4GB, 8GB or 16GBLPDDR3 2,133 MHz

Display

1080p matte non-touchQHD+ glossy full touch

Graphics

Intel HD 620

Ports

USB 3.1, 3.5mm jack, SD Card, USB-C Thunderbolt 3.1

Wireless

Killer 1535Bluetooth 4.1802.11ac (Miracast enabled)

Battery

60WHr

Weight

2.8lbs (1.27 kg)

Dimensions

11.98 x 7.88 x 0.33-0.60 in304.29 x 200.15 x 8.38-15.24 mm

Colors

Silver, Rose Gold

I spent the last few weeks with the XPS 13 (9360), and it's hard to not like this device. Not only is the processor better now – including running cooler and quieter – but the battery life is outrageously good.

With the dazzling IGZO QHD+ display pushing over 10 hours on a single charge is a cinch. All that power plus leaving the charger at home is incredible.

I think Dell could do better with the keyboard by at least improving it a bit and maybe squeezing in a Windows Hello IR camera. But the company is comfortable with the XPS 13's design, and it still gets the basics right for display, typing, and that Precision Touchpad.

It's quite evident that the new i7-8550U processor gives a big boost to the multi-core score due to the new quad-core design. Moreover, the single-core score gets a nice boost too. The new Microsoft Surface Book 2 13 edges out the XPS 13 slightly, but that's due to the higher-clocked chip found with the i7-8650U.

GPU

Geekbench 4.0 OpenCL (higher is better)

Device

Compute score

Dell XPS 13 (NEW)

22,555

Surface Laptop

19,256

HP Spectre x360 15

28,868

Samsung Notebook 9 15 Ext

23,207

HP EliteBook x360 G2

21,512

Lenovo X1 Carbon

20,932

Dell XPS 13 (OLD)

19,410

Surface Book HD520

18,197

Dell Latitude 7280

17,827

Although this is still the same HD 620 graphics for the updated XPS 13 we can see even the OpenCL score gets a slight overall boost compared to last year's model.

PCMark

PCMark (Home Conventional 3.0)

Device

Score

Dell XPS 13 i7

3,280

Surface Book 2 13

3,341

Surface Laptop Core i5

2,494

Samsung Notebook 9 15 Ext

2,998

Lenovo X1 Carbon Core i5

2,965

HP EliteBook x360 G2

2,916

Dell Latitude 7280

2,829

HP Spectre x360 15

2,472

Again, we can see how the new 8th generation Core i7 processors significantly outpace last year's models. Both the Surface Book 2 13 and XPS 13 make large strides in PCMark 8.

SSD

CrystalDiskMark (higher is better)

Device

Read

Write

Dell XPS 13 (NEW)

1,368 MB/s

847 MB/s

Dell XPS 13 (OLD)

1,287 MB/s

794 MB/s

Surface Book 2 13

1,411 MB/s

1,202 MB/s

Surface Laptop

423 MB/s

237 MB/s

Lenovo X1 Carbon

1,518 MB/s

1,188 MB/s

Samsung Notebook 9 Ext

1,365 MB/s

1,213 MB/s

HP EliteBook x360 G2

1,129 MB/s

916 MB/s

HP Spectre x360 15

1,128 MB/s

862 MB/s

Dell is still using well-sourced Samsung SSD's in many of the 512GB and 1TB options for the XPS 13 resulting in above average storage performance.

Pricing still starts at $799, but that's for the older 7th generation Intel Core i3 model.

The new 8th Generation Core i7's start at $999.99 and goes up to $2,125 with 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and fingerprint reader. Luckily, Dell lets you configure the XPS 13 with basically whatever you want. Oh, and that Rose Gold option is an extra $50. Bling ain't cheap.

Cons:

Daniel Rubino

Daniel Rubino is executive editor of Windows Central. He has been covering Microsoft since 2009 back when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Surface, HoloLens, Xbox, and future computing visions. Follow him on Twitter: @daniel_rubino.